The conditional formatting tool in Excel allows users to apply many different formatting options to data. The benefit: sorting and recognizing data is much easier. These Excel formatting options include background colors, borders and font formatting -- all visual cues…
Accounting
Can a company's cybersecurity weakness equate to "ineffective accounting controls?" The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) says yes ... ... but for now, the courts say no. The SEC charged SolarWinds and its chief information security officer (CISO) Timothy Brown…
Fully integrated, automated payments! A dream goal for many CFOs and controllers. Imagine how much more mission-critical work finance staffers could dig into? Here's a reality check: If you're still in the process of transitioning from manual to automated processes,…

Many businesses are hesitant to spend big bucks on capital improvements or new equipment due to inflation, high interest rates and economic uncertainty. But there's at least one very good reason for not waiting until next year to address a…
Excel financial formulas allow users to process accounting data quickly and easily. To use a financial formula in Excel, click on the “Formula” tab along the main tool bar. From the function library, click on “Financial” and select the formula…
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is calling on publicly traded companies to report employee compensation. And that's not all. As we reported a few months back, FASB also wants public firms to report manufacturing and inventory expenses on their…
An Excel database is perfect for organizing -- and clearly seeing -- financial data. A database includes a series of series of records in rows with fields of data entered in columns. Here are three steps to use Excel as…
Full disclosure: We never know for certain which topics will grab the attention of CFOs, controllers and other finance professionals. Often times we know, like when withholding tables for the following year are announced. But sometimes, we're surprised by how…

Ever wondered why Excel features a currency format as well as an accounting format? You're not alone. The reason is, creating Excel spreadsheets that contain currency like an income statement or a balance sheet can be difficult to organize. The…
In a matter of months, companies will possess first-ever guidelines for environmental credit accounting. Public and private firms will be required to follow one model for marking down projects like carbon dioxide offsets. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) unanimously…

Wealthy investors are about to lose a tax loophole that IRS allowed for years. The tax cops say its new policy and enforcement will net billions of dollars in revenue over the next decade to the treasury. IRS plans "to…
Heads up: Public accounting firms will need to implement (or update existing) quality control protocols. And they must reevaluate their quality programs on an annual basis under a recently announced accounting standard. The Quality Control (QC) 1000 standard was adopted…